His best season in twenty years, from a single extra line at the counter. What one Polignano kiosk changed.
In May 2025 Salvatore Greco added a single line to his menu board. By the end of August, he had his best season in twenty years behind him. Three of his neighbours copied him within three weeks. Here is what he changed, and what Salvatore actually figured out.
In late August, Salvatore Greco sat down on the terrace, opened his accounts book, and had to check twice. For his kiosk on the cliff of Polignano a Mare it had been, by far, the best season in twenty years. The year before, with the same opening, had gone like all the others.
The interesting part is that almost nothing else had changed. Same counter, same price list, same team. What had changed was a single line, added at the bottom of the chalkboard in May. A line that, back in February, Salvatore did not even know existed. Three of his neighbours noticed within three weeks. This is the story of that line, and what Salvatore would recommend today to anyone running a coastal kiosk.
01 · The starting pointFour seasons in a row stuck at the same place
From 2021 to 2024 his kiosk closed every season in much the same way. Nothing wrong with that for a three-table kiosk on the cliff, but a flat line. Salvatore knows it, because he has kept his accounts for twenty-two years in a brown notebook that today is the most valuable thing he has at the counter.
"The problem with Southern Italian kiosks isn't getting people in. They come in. The problem is one thing only: the margin per customer who walks in. On espressos you can't push the price, it's fixed. On soft drinks, suppliers eat half the margin. On gelato, the competition keeps everything low. Where you actually make money is on the extra the customer didn't plan to order. The cream on top of the granita, the topping on the affogato. That's where the season is made, not on base prices."
Salvatore had known this for years. But until 2024 the small cartridges didn't allow him to: high cost, single flavour, unstable cream. Result: he served cream only when the customer explicitly asked, never as a counter suggestion. A few coins extra per receipt, and a season that always landed at the same place.
02 · The discoveryThe phone call that changed the season
The turn came in February 2025, off season, with a phone call Salvatore had not expected. On the other end was an old friend, a gelato maker in Lecce. "He says, Salvo, I have to tell you something. I changed the way I make cream in the shop. The season I just closed was the best in ten years. I want you to know before anyone else."
The gelato maker was talking about a professional cream charger from a brand called Exotic Whip. A sealed 670-gram canister, filled with food-grade N2O at 99.95 per cent purity, classified as additive E942. A single canister replaced about eighty small cartridges. Above all, it came in seven ready flavours: Original, Coconut, Green Apple, Banana, Blueberry-Strawberry, Grape, Coconut and Strawberry.
That was the part the gelato maker wanted Salvatore to grasp at once. "It is not the saving on cartridges. That's secondary. The point is the flavour. Seven different creams at the counter that the others don't have. A customer who sees on the board 'coffee granita with coconut cream' stops. The same customer walks past the kiosk next door and doesn't stop. That's all there is to it."
Salvatore placed a small order, one Original and one Coconut, just to try. "If it didn't work, I'd have lost an afternoon. If it did, I'd have something new to put on the counter for May."
03 · The first weekendThe chalkboard line that kept selling out
The canister arrived in two days. Salvatore tried it during a rainy Wednesday lunch break. The first cream came out dense, stable, velvety, like the ones you see in pastry photographs. The Coconut one changed his wife's face when she tasted it. "It doesn't look like spray cream. It looks like it came out of a pastry shop."
The first real test came the following Saturday, with the first wave of weekend tourists. Salvatore didn't raise the prices, didn't change the menu. He simply added, handwritten on the chalkboard, one line: coffee granita with coconut cream. Same price as a regular granita, cost of cream at the counter next to nothing. Everything that came in on top was clean margin.
"The first guy who ordered it came back ten minutes later with his wife. They had another, between the two of them. Then another table. Then another. By the end of the day I had lost count of how many coffee granitas with coconut cream I had served. All of them on top, from one line added to the chalkboard." When the following Saturday repeated itself identically, Salvatore understood it wasn't a lucky day, it was a new line on the balance sheet.
04 · What actually changedThe 2025 season, behind the counter
When he sat down to do the books at the end of August, Salvatore called his accountant just to be sure he hadn't made a mistake. He hadn't.
What changed in the 2025 season · kiosk in Polignano a Mare
The thing that surprised Salvatore most isn't the season total. It's the margin per canister. "I pay for the canister once. It gives me plenty of cups. Each cup is almost all profit. That means every canister I open is worth, by the end of the season, many times what I paid for it. For a single product that costs about the same as dinner for two."
05 · The flavours that emptied the counterSeven new menu lines, seven more reasons to stop here
The real engine behind the turnaround wasn't a single line, but the combination of seven ready-to-use flavours, each with its own pairing. "Before, I was a kiosk like the others on the cliff. Now I am the kiosk with the unusual granitas. People pick up the phone, call a friend on the beach: come over, they've got coconut cream. One phone call, two more customers."
The menu lines that drove the season, in rough order of how well they sold:
- Coconut On coffee granita, affogato and crêpes. The counter's number one line all season: the menu item that brought the highest margin of all.
- Green Apple Topping for non-alcoholic spritz, summer mocktails and lemon granitas. Captures the younger crowd and drivers: one of the most requested lines of the summer.
- Blueberry-Strawberry On vanilla frappè and lemon granita. The kids' favourite, and therefore the mums'.
- Coconut and Strawberry The "house special", weekends only. Creates deliberate scarcity: priced slightly above the others, and always sells out.
- Banana On pistachio affogato, crêpes and afternoon brioche. Teenage tourist snack window.
- Original For classic pastry and espresso with cream. Stays the base, not a novelty line.
- Grape Added in July as a test, on non-alcoholic cocktails and lemon gelato. Captured the evening aperitivo crowd.
The key point, according to Salvatore, is not the single flavour. It is that every new menu line creates a new reason to stop here instead of the kiosk next door. "The customer doesn't come to you for coffee granita. They can find that anywhere. They come to you for coffee granita with coconut cream. It's a detail, but it's the detail that makes your season."
06 · The ripple effectThree kiosks on the cliff copied within three weeks
Word travelled fast. When residents from neighbouring towns started talking about Salvatore's granitas in June, the three other kiosks on the cliff noticed first. The flow of customers had shifted, visibly to whoever stood behind the counter.
The manager of the kiosk next door came over on a Tuesday afternoon. He drank an espresso, looked at the canister on the counter, asked. Salvatore gave him the supplier's number without thinking twice. "We've been neighbours behind the counter for fifteen years. Never a fight. Why would I keep it to myself?"
The second came by after August, season closed. "He invited me over for dinner at the end of September. By the end he said: next year I'll put it in too, but with different flavours so we don't compete directly. We decided on the spot: I keep Coconut and Green Apple, he takes Banana and Blueberry-Strawberry. Each one has his identity."
The third said nothing. He simply started using the product in mid-July, getting his canisters from a supplier in Bari. By the end of September he left a paid-for espresso on Salvatore's saucer. "That was his way of saying thanks. In Southern Italy that's how it works, no one writes a message."
For the 2026 season, according to local distributors, at least seven other kiosks along the Polignano-Monopoli stretch are already preparing their order before May.
The 2026 season is being decided right now
If you run a kiosk or a venue on the coast, talk to the Exotic Whip Italia team before May.
Salvatore's story is not an isolated case. The consultation is free and helps you understand how many canisters you'd need at the counter, which flavours work in your area, and how much margin can be added to the season about to start. No commitment.
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What Exotic Whip Italia is
Exotic Whip is a cream charger based on food grade nitrous oxide intended exclusively for professional culinary use, distributed across Europe to hospitality, pastry, gelato and venue operators. It is produced in Europe according to community food safety standards.
- Gas purity: 99.95 per cent, classified as food additive E942
- Available formats: 670g canister (replaces around 80 small cartridges) and 2000g
- Seven ready to use flavours: Original, Grape, Green Apple, Banana, Blueberry-Strawberry, Coconut, Coconut and Strawberry
- Compliance: EU Regulation 1333/2008 on food additives
07 · What Salvatore recommends todayThree things, in order, to anyone running a venue on the coast
When we asked him what he'd say to another kiosk owner currently considering the move, Salvatore thought for a moment. Then he said three things, in order of importance.
First. "Decide now, not in June. The difference between starting the season with the product at the counter and adding it in July is six full weeks. Six weeks of peak season are the biggest slice of a kiosk's annual takings. Whoever starts late loses the first wave, and that wave doesn't come back."
Second. "Don't buy all the flavours at once. Start with three: Original, Coconut, and a third one chosen for your area. Coconut works everywhere. Green Apple works where there's a younger crowd and mocktail drinkers. Blueberry-Strawberry works where there are families with kids. If you're on the coast, my advice: Original, Coconut, and Green Apple. You'll see the difference within two weekends."
"And the third thing, maybe the most important," says Salvatore before heading back to the counter. "Add one new line to the chalkboard every two weeks. Don't fill the menu. People buy what they see handwritten, not what's printed. Keep two or three flavoured-cream lines and rotate them. You'll see your customers come back to find out what the next one is."
Last year, for the first time in ten seasons, Salvatore felt the kiosk was actually paying him what it was worth. The difference, he says, isn't the product alone: it's the product combined with a small mental shift. Stop working to repeat last year's season. Start working to make it a better one.
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For those running a kiosk or a venue on the coast
Salvatore transformed his season with a single extra line. Yours can start now.
Talk to the Exotic Whip Italia team before the May rush. A free assessment of your real consumption and a tailored proposal for your counter. No commitment, no order obligation.
- Free assessment of your consumption and the right format (670g or 2,000g) for your venue
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- Fast delivery across Southern Italy, including during peak season months
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